


Braids

by NSB_Luci



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Alcohol, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23965462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NSB_Luci/pseuds/NSB_Luci
Summary: Elliott had caught Bloodhound looking directly at him for the 7th time tonight, and he had to say - his curiosity was piqued. Of course he loved the attention, but he was really starting to wonder if he had something on his face.
Relationships: Bloodhound/Mirage | Elliott Witt
Comments: 6
Kudos: 103





	Braids

**Author's Note:**

> Q: Luci why are you writing this instead of updating your other fic?  
> A: because I have no self control
> 
> pls accept this fluffy self indulgence lolol

Nearly every legend was gathered in the main lounge in the Apex Tower for the end of season party, and Elliott was in his element. He made himself busy behind the small bar the room had, it felt like a home away from home as he spent the majority of the night making drinks and laughing with his fellow legends. He didn’t really talk to Revenant or Caustic as Revenant spent all night alone at a table in the corner of the room, and Caustic tried to be alone but Wattson occasionally went over to him to chat. Nobody could say no to her, not even someone as antisocial as him. The rest of the legends were scattered around the room in small groups, with most of them sitting at the small tables that populated the lounge. The rest were standing at the bar, either nursing drinks or listening to Mirage tell stories about his home planet or the games.

“Then I ended up flying through the air, and landed on top of her head! It was crazy, I totally didn’t see the jump pad, but we ended up winning anyway.” Elliott grinned as he shrugged, with Octane excitedly cackling and drumming his hands on the bar while Anita huffed in annoyance besides him. Wattson giggled at Octane’s show of excitement, and leaned on the bar as she turned back to the star of the story.

“You ‘ave the best stories, Mirage! In the next season I ‘ope I’m on your team at least once, maybe I will be in one of your stories someday.” Wattson smiled, sipping her bright blue cocktail as Elliott flipped his curly hair out of his face.

“Haha, I hope so too! It’d be even better with our lovely Octavio there too though, imagine the mischief!” Elliott winked at Octane, which got him to laugh again and he moved closer to Wattson, nudging her shoulder with his.

“Amiga, there’s never a dull moment with the two of us on a team, it’ll be a blast!”

“Yeah, a blast that’ll send you right into the medic’s arms.” Anita replies, downing the rest of her drink as the trio besides her collapse into fits of laughter.

“Alright, alright, want another, sourpuss?” Elliott grins smugly as Anita nods, deciding she wasn’t nearly tipsy or drunk enough for this.

Elliott busies himself with getting her drink as the rest of their little group continue talking, though it was mostly Octavio rambling while Natalie and Anita listened. Between his adoring fans and moments like these with the other legends, it made Elliott glad that he had joined the games. It was a nice respite from the bloodsport.

It didn’t take him long to fill another glass with the whiskey Anita liked and he tried sliding it to her across the bar, but he only got an unimpressed look in return as she stopped it and went back to listening to Octavio. He huffed a little as his efforts went unappreciated, but then watched as Natalie bid adieu to their group and gave her a little wave as she went back to Caustic again. He would never get over how soft he was for her in comparison to how harsh he was with everyone else, but every legend had a bit of a soft spot for her so he couldn’t blame him. 

The table next to Caustic and Natalie caught his eye though, as he saw someone move and he automatically looked over at them. Lifeline, Wraith and Bloodhound were sat at a table together, with Bloodhound in the middle, although they didn’t seem to be paying attention to what the other two were talking about. Their chin was resting on the back of their hand as they slouched forward and their other hand held their boring looking drink. They were wearing their usual outfit sans the armor and their mask, instead they were wearing a black face mask so they could drink. Elliott couldn’t see their eyes, but he could tell they were staring at him as he had caught them looking at him multiple times in the last few hours. He held their gaze for a moment before flipping his hair dramatically and winking, and watched as they calmly sat up straight and their head turned as they looked around. Once they realized that yes, they had been caught, and yes, he was winking at them, they hesitantly nodded in his direction and then said something in reply to Wraith, who had caught on to Bloodhound’s sudden movement and was looking back and forth between them and Elliott. He kept watching as they talked, until finally Lifeline started chuckling and waved Elliott over. He was pretty curious about what all the fuss was about, so with a few words to Anita, he left the bar and made his way over to the other group.

“I gotta admit, I’m surprised you actually came over. I didn’t think anything could get you away from that bar.” Lifeline comments as she sips from her drink and leans back in her chair as Elliott sits in the only spare seat at the table.

“You know me, I can’t resist a bit of attention.” He wiggles his eyebrows and grins at Bloodhound, who only turns their head away in response.

“Gross.” Wraith scowls and stands up. “I’m gonna go and wander around. Seeya.”

“You’re just jealous, but okay, bye!” Elliott cheerfully waves as Wraith walks away, flipping him off from behind as she heads towards Gibraltar and Pathfinder who are playing Jenga next to one of the windows.

“She loves me really.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say.” Lifeline chuckles again. “Anyway, you said you had your own bar, right? Do ya really love bein’ behind the bar that much?”

“Well...It’s a home away from home, y’know? Even the great Mirage gets a bit homesick sometimes. Nah, I’m kidding, I just like to drink.” At that, Lifeline lightly pushes Elliott a little and they both laugh.

\--

Lifeline sticks around for another thirty minutes before getting dragged off by Octane and Wattson, leaving Elliott and Bloodhound alone at the table. They had been quiet for a while, not really involving themselves in any conversation as they were content observing and listening. However with Lifeline gone, Elliott was finally free to grill them for staring at him so much.

“I need to know, is there something on my face?”

“Pardon?”

“You’ve been staring at me all night! Well, I can’t see your eyes behind that thing, but I can totally tell.” Elliott pulls out his phone and turns on the camera, inspecting his face as Bloodhound lifts a hand and rests it where their mouth was behind the face mask.

“Oh...I apologize, your face is fine.”

At that, he lowers his phone and raises an eyebrow at them in confusion. If they hadn’t been staring at him because of that, he didn’t know what other reason there was, after all the hunter seemed far too stoic and serious to be staring at him because of his looks.

“Then...Why’ve you been staring at me? I know I look ravishing, but I doubt it’s ‘cause of that...You never stare when I walk through the tower half naked.” Elliott winks. Bloodhound’s head tilts to the side, though Elliott couldn’t decide what that meant.

“Your hair.”

“What’s wrong with it?” He panics a little, going to fiddle with it to see if there was gum in it or something similar.

“Nothing is wrong with your hair, I promise. I was just thinking that it may look good in a braid.” They shuffle in their seat slightly, sitting up straighter and moving to hold their drink with both hands, elbows on the table.

“That’s…Specific.” Elliott chuckles awkwardly, running his hand through his hair in a self conscious manner. They don’t move or say anything in reply, so Elliott thinks about it for a moment, humming low with a finger on his lips. He took great pride in his hair, but he had never actually tried styling it in a braid before. He spent forever styling it with gels and such however.

“I haven’t tried braiding it before, but...For real? All that staring just ‘cause of braids? Kinda hard to believe.” He smiles softly.

“Ah, in that case…” Ignoring the latter half of his comment they let go of their drink and move their chair closer to Elliott, which makes him sit upright.

“...May I?” their head tilts and they lift their hand to gesture at Elliott’s long hair.

“Uh...Yeah, I guess. Go for it.” He moves so that he’s sitting sideways on his chair, giving Bloodhound free access to his prized curls. He was slightly nervous that they’d mess his hair up, but it would probably be pretty funny if they were the ones doing it at the very least.

He barely feels it as they separate a few small clumps of hair for each other right next to his head and brushes them through with their gloved fingers, trying to soften the hair up from where it was caked in products. The slight tugging from this makes Elliott close his eyes and smile a little, he couldn’t remember the last time someone had played with his hair like this. Maybe when he was a child? It felt surprisingly nice and he found himself relaxing quite easily. 

The tugging got a little harder as they tightly wove his hair into a small braid and then held it with one hand as they pulled out a wooden bead from one of their many pouches and pockets. Elliott opened his eyes to watch them tie the braid off with a small elastic band before putting the bead over the top of it and leaning back to admire their handiwork. The ornate bead reminded Elliott of the beads on the axe they sometimes had in the ring, he noticed they looked handmade as he lightly played with his new braid.

“Huh...This is pretty good...Do you braid your hair often or something? Assuming you even have hair under that thing.” Elliott innocently asks, not realizing that such a normal question for most people put Bloodhound in an uncomfortable situation. They wanted to ignore the question, but it had an obvious answer they couldn’t really avoid without being overly rude.

“...Yes.” Bloodhound replies quietly, leaning forward once more to undo the small braid.

“Huh? Does it look that bad?”

“No, the opposite in fact. However, I have thought of another way of doing it that may look better.” They murmur, concentrating on not pulling his hair. Elliott was surprised by how gentle they were with him, he expected them to be rougher with him with how violent they could be in the ring and outside of it the few hobbies he knew of.

He wasn’t ignorant to the many compliments he had gotten out of the quiet hunter in such a small amount of time, and Elliott was feeling a bit giddy because of it. He had only heard Bloodhound compliment people on their skills in battle, so getting a compliment on his appearance when he had never heard them say such things before meant a lot to him. Of course he knew he looked good, but compliments always meant so much more from people you knew instead of random strangers and fans.

“Soo...What other secret hobbies have you got that I don’t know about?” Elliott pushes his luck a bit more as Bloodhound styles his hair again, and they pause to look directly at him for a moment to think about if they want to answer him or not.

“I enjoy poetry occasionally.” They decide to humor him as they stand up, half a braid in hand, to get a better angle. They were doing a small french braid around his head and it wouldn’t do if it got messed up because they couldn’t reach.

“Oh wow, I didn’t expect you to actually answer.” He laughs awkwardly again, looking down into his lap before Bloodhound reaches around Elliott’s head to put their gloved hand under his chin, holding it lightly as they prompt him to look back up. His face flushes slightly feeling their hand touching his neck and his lips purse from embarrassment.

“Neither did I, but that is the most you shall get out of me for now. I believe the saying is curiosity killed the cat?” It’s only now that they slowly pull their hand back, purposely brushing their fingers against his neck and they feel him swallow.

“I-it’s probably best not to push an Apex Champion when they have their hand on my neck.” Elliott says, biting his lip.

“I believe that is wise.” 

Despite everything, their grip on his hair is still gentle yet firm enough to keep the braid they’re doing tight enough so that it doesn’t come apart. Elliott can tell once they get to the end though as they start tying up the end of the braid again, yet again making sure to put a decorative bead on the end of it. They walk in front of Elliott, humming slightly as they admire their latest work and the trickster gets his phone out, looking into the camera to see what they did.

He’s amazed by what he sees. They were limited with what they could do with his hair, but they made one thick braid on top of a smaller one running on top of his ear, and they’ve decorated it with ornate beads scattered throughout. It’s a little messy due to his curls, but somehow it looks better because of it. He spends a while admiring himself, though it’s strange seeing his hair in a style he has never tried before as he feels almost like a different person without long hair framing his face.

“Holy...Wow, just wow. I gotta say, I never expected this from you. If you told me you worked in a hair salon before the games, I’d believe you with zero hesitation.”

Elliott hears Bloodhound let out a small huff, though he can’t tell if it was from amusement or frustration.

“I did not.” 

They then look up past Elliott’s head, and he turns to look at what they spotted. Lifeline was walking back towards the pair, and once she fully sees the braid she lets out a low whistle in admiration.

“Love the new style, Mirage! Bloodhound, did you do this? I know he couldn’t do it.”

“I want to be offended but I know you’re right.”

Lifeline laughs and leans on Elliott’s shoulder, poking him in the cheek teasingly.

“I’m surprised by how much this actually suits you, makes me wanna braid mine again.”

Bloodhound fades into the background again as Lifeline and Mirage, two of the most charismatic legends, settle into conversation like it’s the most natural thing in the world. It was then that they decided to leave. Parties like these were fine in moderation, but they could tell that they had drunk enough already if they were braiding people’s hair and thinking about writing poetry for curly haired men. So with that, they downed the rest of their drink and waited until Lifeline and Mirage looked at them.

“I thank you for the company tonight, but I believe it’s time for me to leave.”

“Okay, seeya!” Lifeline waves with a smile as Bloodhound turns to leave.

“W-waitwaitwait!” Elliott stands up and follows behind them, making them turn curiously with a tilt of their head.

“Is something the matter, Mirage?”

Bloodhound watches as Elliott awkwardly rubs the back of his neck and struggles to make eye contact with them.

“Do you want the beads back? Oh, and uh...Thank you. I wasn’t expecting this, but it looks awesome.”

“You may keep them if you wish, and you are welcome, Mirage. I should be thanking you for letting me do it.” They pause, looking at their work one last time. “It’s just as lovely as I imagined it would be. Goodnight.”

They don’t stay to watch Elliott’s eyes go wide and his mouth hang open as Lifeline watches with eyebrows raised in surprise, instead they leave quickly with a smile on their face under the mask and blush tipped ears.

**Author's Note:**

> https://twitter.com/NSB_Luci
> 
> <3


End file.
